In these days when calls for true federalism comes across as part cry, part catcall and part cacophony, we tend to forget that it is all about fairness. Relatively obscure institutions play out this drama with such resonant intimacy than bigger pictures cannot convey. One of such is the battle to become the next medical director of the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH) located in Benin City, Edo State. Depending on what reports you accept, at least 11 persons… Read more

What has the Boko Haram sect got to do with axe and even tree, you may ask? Axes of any sort are not the favorite weapons of the dreaded terror group that has held Nigeria by the sac since 2009. The axe must represent a cumbersome instrument of warfare for them because it has never featured in their profile all these years. Of course they are most famous for the now infamous IEDs(Improvised Explosive Device). In fact, the BH may… Read more

IT’s easy to see that members of the House of Representatives are interested in cars. An August 7 report said: “The House of Representatives is spending N6.1 billion on procurement of 360 Peugeot 508 for its members, it was learnt at the weekend. At a unit price of about N17 million, the leadership of the House said no member would get more than a car, including the principal officers.” Interestingly, some of the legislators have complained about the allegedly slow… Read more

Today, Hardball remembers his late father — God bless his soul! Indeed, there are many things to remember the old man for. But this time, it is about a particular counsel, hinged on iron conviction. “Son, if the whole of Lagos goes this way,” he was wont to say, “and you’re convinced the opposite direction is the way the way to go, just stick to your guns. It is only a matter of time,” he would add, “when the crowd… Read more

Interestingly, perhaps the clarifications were not clarifying enough. Former President Goodluck Jonathan’s spokesperson, Ikechukwu Eze, said in a statement: "Following series of enquiries from journalists and other concerned Nigerians on the extent of the reported vandalisation and theft in the house of former President Dr. Goodluck Jonathan located in Gwarinpa Abuja, we therefore would like to make the following clarifications: 1) The theft was discovered last month upon which a report was duly lodged with the relevant police authorities. 2)… Read more

By their deeds, says the Bible, we shall know them. For some states, however, by their roads we shall know them. Grim one for travellers, though. Hardball, with some other colleagues, had cause to travel, last weekend, for the funeral service of a colleague’s father. Destination was Kabba, in Kogi State. And most of the distance traversed was between Ekiti and Kogi states, a two-some sharing soaring notoriety in road decay. Indeed, after the seeming endless travel, a lady among… Read more

Shocking news on July 27: “Some intending pilgrims aborted their pregnancies in order to participate in this year’s hajj, Lagos State Commissioner for Home Affairs Dr AbdulHakeem AbdulLateef said yesterday.” The commissioner supplied this unbelievable information to reporters at the Hajj Terminal of the Murtala Muhammed Airport (MMA), Ikeja, Lagos, adding that 18 intending pilgrims were disqualified after failing medical and pregnancy tests. According to a report, “Hajj, he said, was not a do or die. Abortion, he said, is… Read more

It has often been said that in Nigeria, anything and everything is possible. So why does Hardball think that some things should not happen in Nigeria of 2016? Why is he struck dumb when he hears or reads about certain strange stuff? Is it sheer naivety or is it that he is not in tune with reality? Here is one good example of such matters that set Hardball tizzy. At about 9:30 pm on May 30, 2016, as the report… Read more

It’s one of those days that Hardball is hobbled by headline. For a long moment, even hours, you just cannot put a handle on your title. Sometimes every bit of the piece may have taken their natural sequence and fallen into place but you still do not have a suitable head. Imagine having a headless body in your hands! But what you see above (NPFL: pitch dark) happens to be a passable alternative after toying with about half a dozen… Read more

When policemen are caught by the long arm of the law, the irony is remarkable. Two recent instances involving policemen who, ironically, broke the law, and paid the price, show that those paid to enforce the law are not always on the side of the law. In the first case, four policemen were dismissed for extortion. According to a report, “the affected officials were attached to the Ijebu-Ode Division of the Ogun State Command.” The police reportedly said the dismissal… Read more

In one of his countless interventions, Prof. Wole Soyinka, our on WS, spoke of The Open Sore of a Continent, as his personal narrative on the Nigerian conundrum. Back in the University of Ibadan, in those years — maybe, still now? — you’d hear excited freshers, just introduced to the less-than-fair international order, prattle about the “centre of the periphery” and “periphery of the centre”; with only a few piping the “centre of the centre”, the golden core of the… Read more

Don’t cry for me Argentina The truth is I never left you All through my wild days My mad existence I kept my promise Don’t keep your distance The above title of course evokes the popular pop song, “Don’t Cry for me Argentina” written by Andrew Lloyd Webber and sung by Julie Covington. Of course (again) it is the theme song of the popular 70s musical “Evita” and which of course (yet again), depicted the will o’ the waspish life… Read more

When Mr. Olukoya Ogungbeje, the lawyer representing the self-confessed big-time billionaire kidnapper, Chukwudumeme Onwuamadike, better known as Evans, was fined N20, 000 by a court as “punitive cost” for unprofessional conduct, the fine seemed puny indeed. Justice Abdulazeez Anka of the Federal High Court, Lagos, who awarded the cost against Ogungbeje on July 13, said the fine must be paid before July 20. What did Ogungbeje do wrong? Justice Anka said: “Counsel wrote a letter seeking for an adjournment without… Read more